Arts+Culture

Evelyn Waugh’s marvelous novel Brideshead Revisited begins as a coming-of-age story. At Oxford in the 1920s Charles Ryder crosses paths with the disarming, childlike aristocrat Sebastian Flyte; they become inseparable friends, and Charles is taken up by Sebastian’s family.

Are these Christian tattooistsin the paper any stranger—Simon Stylites spenta life standing on a stone pillar, sixty feet up—did not come down for cramps or winter rain.

Could I survive the Sacred Heart with “Hail, Mary,Full of Grace” across my arm, orthe crucifixion in three colorsagainst my sternum between my breasts.Needles to skin oversoft tissue is less painful,but flesh is grass and sags—art lasts best close to bone.

No stranger than hair shirts,hundreds of needles for hours, for days, even years,to get the complete St. Michael on my shoulder to the writhing,twisting dragon down my leg.Or my whole life to get the Last Supperwith Stations of the Cross, and the proper text—Jesus’ words in red—covering every inch of skin, eyelids,lips, nose, between fingers and toes,while invisible capillariesunder the skin carry the imagesmolecule by moleculeinto the living catacombs of bone.

The name Roman Polanski conjures up different responses. To many film buffs he is the Polish wunderkind who rocketed out of the Lodz film school in Poland to direct the dark and mysterious Knife in the Water (1962), a tale of fear and betrayal on the high seas heralded for its thematic complexity and perfect camera placement.

Sharing the Road: Songs for Lent

Nick Cave might not be well known, but time spent with this complex Australian rocker is well spent. He doesn’t shy away from dense theological issues, which he explores in a rambling, lyrical style that recalls Jim Morrison at his poetic peak.

Reflections on the Lectionary

Poem

So Jesus’ wealthy friends did prove useful in the end.All four narratives seem to agree on this.Joseph, after all—the one from Arimathea, not his Dad—Joseph pulled strings with Pilate. Did he have to call ina few favors earned in questionable waysso he could claim possession of the corpse?Old Nicodemus too, Jesus’ night-shift friend from the Sanhedrin,Nicodemus makes his own fleeting reprise,carting along a ton—almost—of fragrant spices,nard and myrrh (again!), for preservation purposes.Although where he got such pricey stuff,late on a holiday Friday afternoon, is never quite explained.And that convenient, fresh-hewn, garden tomb;even back in the day, sepulchres such as thosedid not come ten-a-penny! Add in all the hired helpthey must have needed to get stuff from here to thereand, of course, to roll and seal that massive rock . . .Whole thing makes you wonder—doesn’t it?—wonder if that narrow needle’s eye got prized wide open—camel-size, at least—to accommodate these late allies.

Century Marks

Imagine it

Mar 26, 2015

When Toni Morrison taught creative writing at Princeton University, all her students had been told in previous classes to write about what they knew. She said to forget that advice because first, they didn’t know anything yet, and two, she didn’t want to read about their experiences. She told them to imagine people outside their own experience, such as a Mexican waitress in Rio Grande who could barely speak English. It was amazing what these students came up with, Morrison said, when they were given license to imagine something outside their realm of experience (American Theatre, March 10).